thanks so much for watching. coming up right now, "the ed show," with ed schultz. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show," live from morning. let's get to work. live from new york. ♪ let's fast forward to the state of union and months after that. health care working better, a lot of people signing up, economy continuing to strengthen, hopefully no washington shutdowns. ♪ >> first impression here was terrible. >> i think there's going to be a lot of negative surprises as to what they're able to enroll in. >> give my creation life! >> i think it's going to be an unfolding disaster for the president. ♪ >> so i still think the foundations of this plan have some of the same kinds of problems that the rollout has had. but they're fundamental, very

hard to overcome. and unfortunately, as people enroll -- >> you can't handle the truth! >> it may take until 2017 when this president leaves office. you're going to see almost every state in this country running their own exchanges eventually and expanding medicaid. and i think it will work really well then. ♪ good to have you with us want to, folks. thanks for watching. hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving holiday. ooh, nellie, we had some football games over the weekend, didn't we? you know, there really is no greater rivalry than alabama-auburn. you know, alabama has been awesome. i mean, they've kind of had everything their way, kind of like the republicans in recent years, you know? they just stop everything, you know. you just can't score on these guys. and, of course, alabama thinks somebody is going to score on them. heck, they're alabama. they're going to go for their third straight national championship, they thought. in fact, they are so confident, they thought with just one second left, they could put a bunch of fat guys out there on the offensive line that don't

know how to recover kicks, and try a field goal. but wait a minute, you see auburn. if you're for obama care, you've got to play like auburn. you've got to play every play, keep going. so here's what happened. alabama decides to try a field goal to win the dog gone thing. of course, overtime isn't an option for alabama. they're alabama. so this is what happens. the kid lines up, and they try a 57-yard field goal. oh, nellie, we are down to the wire here. this is going to be short off to the right a little bit, and what have we got? holy smokes, we've got a return by obama care. this is chris davis, he's a believer, he's got all those obama blockers out there. he's going to go all the way! it's going to work! it's going to work! look at obama care, it's going to work! they ain't giving up. 109 yards in jordan harris stadium, 87,000 fans loving every bit of it, and guess what, four times that many people went to the website and signed up today. you see that?

liberals, democrats, progressives, believers in obama care. don't ever give up. it's never over. even the arrogance of alabama who thinks they can beat everybody anywhere, any time, any day. even with one second left, they think they're going to get it to you. and that's where they're just like the republicans! they never give up. so here we are. it's the beginning of december. and obama care, son of a gun, is working better than ever. mae made the deadline, didn't they? but, you know, this news hasn't stopped the republican plot to take your health care away. healthcare.gov got off to a rocky rollout, no doubt about that. the website is now running at 90% of its intended speed, and these folks, they're not happy about that at all. this means that the website can handle 50,000 simultaneous users and up to 800,000 visits a day. and all this hard work that president obama was talking about, it's starting to pay off. in nova loan, roughly 100,000

people enrolled in obama care through the federal exchange. it's a four-fold increase from the month of october. when all the bad-mouthing was going on. all this cocky talk going on out there about how it was going to fail. oh, but we had one last play left, right? the obama administration said they expect the enrollment to jump dramatically in the coming months. meanwhile, the state exchanges, they're doing even better. how about california alone? 80,000 people in california. now, this is a dirty word. if you connect it to the democrats. private health plan enrollments, 80,000 in the state of california? that's right. and 135,000 have signed up for medicaid. el with, how about new york? in this state, over 250,000 people have completed applications for obama care. over 40,000 people have enrolled in a private plan. and in the state of kentucky, where we were visiting not long ago, now the number is up to over 56,000 people have now enrolled in the private insurance or medicaid in a rural

state of kentucky. how in the world could that happen? overall state exchanges nearly doubled their enrollment in the first two weeks of november, compared to all of october. and you know what, you just simply can't argue with the numbers. you can't argue with the result. you can't argue with the guy who went 109 yards for auburn and beat alabama. i mean, it happened. it's an absolute. it's definite. these are definite numbers. there is no doubt obama care is rolling in the and the mainstream media doesn't know what to do about it. this has republicans in a tight spot. they are simply taking their obama care smear campaign to the next level. all you have to do is watch the sunday shows. sunday talk shows filled with a whole bunch of new bogus gop talking points. fox news host sunday, this guy, chris wallace, he thinks obama care is the redistribution of wealth? >> the final point i want to discuss here, and that is this question of whether or not obama care has massive income redistribution.

is it not the case that younger, healthier people are going to pay more than they currently do -- you've got to let me ask the question. >> i didn't say anything. i didn't say anything. i'm just getting ready. >> that young, healthy people are going to pay more than they currently do in order to subsidize the extra benefits for older, sicker people? >> and, of course, chris wallace, we certainly wouldn't want to focus on the people who are getting premium breaks, lowering prices and better care. because that, of course, would be saying something positive about the obama administration. chris wallace must be getting his talking point memos from eric cantor. i'm just using the numbers, folks. young people who have junk policies will be paying more for better coverage. what's wrong with that? they will be paying for things like no lifetime limits on coverage. free preventative care, better prescription drug plans and a whole host of other options not found in these junk policies that apparently fox news continues to love to promote.

conservative columnist, peggy noon an, former speech writer for reagan, was not impressed with obama care's improvement thes. she wasted no time in going on the attack. >> i think the obama care problem is two-tier. one is the real problem with the website that has been fascinating and captivating people for two months. beyond that, there is the deeper problem of america discovering what is in the program itself. people losing coverage, the doctor situation. you can't keep them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. >> wow! i'll tell you, does she have anything else other than the gop talking points? premiums are going down for most americans. coverage is better. you can't get thrown off. you know the story. come on! they just won't give it up. they're too arrogant. they think they can score from anywhere on the field with just one second left. up next, we have the family

values film producer, rick santorum. santorum used obama care to attack president obama. >> this is -- really feeds into the president's competence. that's really the question now that people have, is the president -- is the president competent to do his job. and obama care is certainly front and center. >> oh, nellie, we've got us a fumble by rick santorum. oh, santorum, he ought to know something about lacking confidence, because no conservatives felt very comfort about his campaign in 2012. that is another absolute. he lost. you know, every college football coach in america will tell their team, you've got to play every play. and in the auburn-alabama game this year, we found out, yeah, all it takes is a second to make a big difference. fact of the matter is, if we're going to see health care change in america, if we're going to reform this industry, you can't give up. they'll try to talk you down, they'll try to get you into a situation where the -- they want to make you think they're really going to win this thing. but they're not.

because the numbers are absolute. the numbers are real. american lives are being changed. and the more we go forward, the more fantastic finishes we're going to have for the folks in the stands who have never had health care. and got it. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. were republicans being too cocky about obama care's rocky rollout? text a for yes, text b for no to 67622. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com, is and tweet us at ed show. we'll bring the results of the poll later on in the program. for more, let's bring in senator bernie sanders, independent from vermont. senator, good to have you with us tonight. >> good to be with you. >> you bet. this is a website fix, is it a turning point? do you feel like the deadline has been met, and we're moving forward? >> well, there's no question that the federal website is making substantial progress. as you have indicated, a number

of state websites and states in general are doing very, very well. so we are making progress. but i find it incredibly unseemly that at a time when our current health care system is dysfunctional, when we have 48 million people without any health insurance, we spend twice as much per person on health care as any other country. the only nation in the world that doesn't guarantee health care to all the people. all that the republicans can do is attack, attack, attack. and, in fact, really work overtime to make sure that this modest promo -- it is a modest promo -- doesn't succeed. imagine being a cheerleader so that people who are in desperate need of health insurance don't get it. that to me is just beyond comprehension. >> senator, how crucial was it to meet this deadline?

800,000 people now able to function on this website. 50,000 assignments simultaneous use users. these are numbers that have been met. and this leaves the republicans somewhat in a box. what's their next move going to be to take it down? how big is this? >> well, it is very big. in the sense that they have rooted, obviously, from the beginning for this program to fail. and what we're seeing in various states -- you mentioned california, kentucky, new york state. what we're beginning to see at the federal level is that this program can work. people can sign up and get decent quality health care at a lower cost in many cases than was previously the case. and not unimportantly, that we're going to see millions and millions of people get medicaid, people who in some cases never in their lives had health insurance. so we're making some progress. we have got to continue going forward. i think our vision has got to be

a health care system which guarantees health care to all of our people at a cost that we can afford. >> you know, i think it's interesting, senator. we have another example of the public/private interaction industry working together to make this happen. the fact is, the private sector played a big part in this, which debunks the right wing bullet point that's been out there, that there that this is some big government takeover. that the private sector has been involved in fixing this website. that the private sector has been involved in delivering a better health care system. and, of course, this idea that it might -- well, bad reflection on government. isn't it a good reflection on government what has unfolded here, this interaction with the private sector? >> well, yes and no. yes in the sense that clearly this has been a public/private partnership from day one. second of all, my own view is that long-term -- got to be honest with you. i believe in a medicare for all

single payer health care system, which i think will be much more cost effective. i think to a large degree, the function of private insurance companies is not to provide quality, cost effective health care but make as much money as they can. that is not the -- >> i'm with you on universal health care and medicare for all. i just find it ironic that the republicans are out there talking about the private sector, complaining about it. yet the private sector played a key role in fixing this. the bottom line -- >> that's absolute -- >> the guidance came from government, from the people who wanted something fixed. >> you're absolutely right on that, ed. and the other point that i would make is, when you have 48 million people who before obama care had no health insurance at all, what is the republicans' position? what is their solution to the fact that we spend so much more than any other country? their solution is to end medicare as we know it, transform it into a voucher system, give a senior citiz citizcitizen $8,000 and say good luck.

make massive cuts in medicaid, and you're even seeing in states around the country now, republican governors whose states could have free medicaid for three years. doesn't cost them a nickel. for all of their low-income people, they are saying no, we don't want it. so what is very clear about this whole situation is the republicans have nothing to say. all they can do is play the anti obama care card, and hope that it fails. and they're going to lose on that. of. >> now, paralleling back to the alabama-auburn football game about never giving up, this was one game in one season. there's going to be another season and another game and the republicans are going to never stop playing it, because they have gone after the entitlement programs, the big three, medicare, medicaid, and social security. so for americans to see this through, not only are they going to have to stay -- do the due diligence of this time and time again, but it's to stay focused to see this thing through. who is going to win out here,

senator? at this point, who is going to win out? >> well, ed, you're exactly right. what the republican nightmare is about is that you have the affordable care act working, people saying thank you that i'm getting better quality care for lower costs. people saying thank you, i'm getting medicaid and health insurance for myself and my kids for the first time in my life. thank you, thank you, thank you. that is exactly the republican nightmare. and i think at the end of the day, we win, they lose. and i think you're going to see a whole lot of people saying this is a important step forward, although we have got to go further. >> senator, i know you've been quoted in some articles and other places, but i would like to ask you for the first time if you could talk to our audience here on "the ed show," what are the possibilities of you running for the democratic nomination or an independent nod to be a presidential candidate? >> well, ed, this is what i have said. there are enormous problems

facing this country. you and i have talked about them. income and wealth inequality, massively high unemployment. in fact, the only country in the industrialized world which doesn't guarantee health care to all people. global warming. it seems to me, it would be a real disgrace if we had a campaign with those issues, the needs of working families, the needs of the middle class, the needs of the elderly were not front and center. we need people out there fighting for ordinary people and not simply taking huge campaign contributions from the wealthy and the powerful. so what i have said is, that candidate is needed. and if somebody else doesn't step up, i am prepared to do it. >> senator bernie sanders, great to have you with us on "the ed show." hope you had a nice holiday. thanks so much, senator. appreciate it. remember to answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen, share your thoughts on ed show and facebook. we certainly want to know what you think. coming up, amazon floats the idea of a special delivery method. how is that going to work with

general aviation? plus, john cornyn takes to twitter, spreading negativity about obama care again. he just can't stand losing to obama care on the last play of the game. for my frequent heartburn. because you can't beat zero heartburn. woo hoo! [ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪

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through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u.s. than any other place in the world. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here in the last five years - making bp america's largest energy investor. our commitment has never been stronger. and it's time now for the trenders, our social media. this is where you can find us. facebook.com/edshow. twitter.com/edshow and ed.msnbc.com. i'm back on the radio tomorrow, noon to 3:00. sirius xm 127. and our town halls, ed tour, starts february 8th in ft. lauderdale and 21st of fib in seattle. go to ed.com to find out more about. the ed social media has decided and we're reporting. top trenders, voted on by you. >> i want a large thick crust

with dub cheese. >> number three trender, uproar. >> one general manager of a pizza hut decided to take a stand. >> i said stand up and care about our employees. >> tony roar paid for it with his job. >> he was fired because he refused to open on thanksgiving. >> pizza hut delivers a thanksgiving defender his job back. we fully respect an employee's right to not work on a holiday. >> i'm proud he did stand up for what he believed in. >> as a result, we strongly recommended that the local franchisee reinstate the store manager and they have agreed. >> you guys eat pizza. >> doesn't everybody? >> the number two trender, air heads. >> up in the sky, it's a bird! >> it's a plane! >> i know this looks like science fiction. >> its goal is to sell everything to everyone. >> amazon is launching a new stealth service. >> these are effectively drones, but no reason they can't be used as delivery vehicles. we can do half-hour delivery. of course the clock is clicking, dude. >> and carry objects up to five pounds. this thing can't land on

somebody's head while walking around in their neighborhood. >> today's top trender, care less. >> if you ask the obama administration if the government's new health care website is vastly improved -- >> i think it's going to be an epic failure. >> john cornyn still thinks obama care is on life support. >> it is amazing, the level of rhetoric they'll throw at the american people. >> we know that lying to congress is a crime. but unfortunately, lying to the american people is not. >> joining me tonight, josh marshal. he is the founder and editor of talking points memo. i want to compliment your website. i can it's one of the best political websites out there. thanks for being on the program. all right. you have got john cornyn now, all of a sudden seems to be the lead dog on negativity for the republicans. >> yeah. >> coming from a state that does not bode very well when it comes to health care. what do you make of it? >> you know, tea party challenge puts the fear of god into some senators. i think that's part of what we're seeing with senator cornyn. but, you know, the tweet he did

today saying this stuff about, you know, basically, oh, the website is fixed? well, there's a bunch of other things to still complain about with obama care. the problems with the website, which were a total unforced error and real embarrassment for the white house and for everybody who supports this law, for the republicans, it was just something to kind of, you know -- something to complain about. they don't want the whole thing to work. they have been trying to get it to fail from the beginning and up until today. and all these different ways, trying to sabotage this law. and look, they're against it, you know. i'm sure it might be the same on the other foot. but they won't stop. >> what surprises me about this, josh, is that the republicans knew that the white house had the wherewithal, the resources, that they could get to go make this work. why do they continue to double down on saying it wasn't going to work? i mean, eventually it's all going to come together. now that they've met this deadline, where does this leave him with tweets like what senator cornyn did? >> you know, i think they're

probably right. you know, they say you never get a second chance for, you know, a first introduction or whatever the phrase is. so i think, you know, this isn't -- they're not out of the woods yet for the white house. but look, this has always been a matter of throw everything up against the wall, see what sticks. if it doesn't stick, make some stuff up you. there's no kind of rhyme or reason to it. and i think they know. the key here is, and it's always been for the republicans, that they are very afraid of this working. they're not afraid of failing. they're afraid of it working. >> so what kind of offensive strategy are we going to see from the democrats? >> well, i think the key has been up until now that the white house and democrats have been sort of wrong-footed a bit, because they couldn't really make a big affirmative case, check out all the great plans on the exchange because it wasn't working. it's not just that people were frustrated and couldn't use the website. it was also that it really prevented the white house or the democrats from going on the offensive.

i think now they're going to start to do it. i think they really do still have a lot of ground to cover in terms of making, you know -- making people think this is going to work, getting over all the bad public policety. and i think now you're going to see them going on the offensive. and there's going to be people, you know -- there's -- we had all those negative stories about this person got cancelled, that person got cancelled. now you're going to see this person got cancelled, they got into the website, and their new policy is two-thirds the cost of what tharold policy was. and it's better benefits. other people who they had cancer ten years ago. and they were uninsurable and now getting insurance. there are still going to be some people who end up paying more. but now you're going to have the totality of the law is going to start to become visible. >> you know what's interesting is that the republicans and some of their broadcasters keep saying that young people are really going to get pinched. young folks have low premiums to start with. and even at the end of the day, if they go up just a little bit, they're still going to be an

ordinary low across the board and now it's going to have standards within the policy. >> yeah. >> that were not in the -- in the junk -- in the junk insurance industry. one thing i want your reaction to is that as you report on what is unfolding with this, why is it that the white house is reluctant to use the term junk policies. where are they afraid to call it like it is? >> you know, i'm not exactly sure. >> but have you noticed that? >> yeah, i have noticed that. i think that -- i think that one of the things that happened is that it's not just that the problems with the website were bad. it's that in the white house, they were genuinely unexpected. so a lot of things they were dealing with from a messaging point of view for the first, you know, three, four, five, six weeks, they didn't quite know what was happening. >> yeah. >> so that really kind of made them very cautious about, you know, going on offense. >> the white house has got to be feeling winning over 800,000 people a day now. i mean, that is one way of looking at it. josh marshal, good to have you

on "the ed show." come back again. thanks so much. coming up, republicans tweet a misguided remark about racism and rosa parks. plus, a deadly railroad crash has many americans asking questions about safety on public transportation and the latest on that horrific crash that unfolded yesterday here in new york. but next, i'm taking your questions on "ask ed live," just ahead. stay with us. we're aig. and we're here. to help secure retirements and protect financial futures. to help communities

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♪ nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. . welcome back to "the ed show." love hearing from our viewers. here in our ask ed segment, our first question comes from cordel gar yet. he wants to know, can we get our line bib ral billionaires to start buying up some media outlets so we can compete with the right wing hate machine. i don't know if this question stems from an article you may have read, as i did, in politico, over the holiday about the demise of liberal talk radio, and the five things that will save it. and then had he had a bunch of

right wing consultants that were -- that were quoted in the thing. i, of course, was not quoted, nor interviewed for it, because i've probably been too successful for them. but anyway, look, ownership has its privileges. i'm giving full disclosure tonight, that if i owned 600 radio stations, limbaugh, hannity, levin, they wouldn't be on any of them. so i guess that's what you mean. do you want billionaires to go up and buy up -- buy up media outlets? well, they would have to be ideologically bent to deliver the kind of equality that we see over on right wing radio. and all this talk about how it's about entertainment, no it's not. it's about ownership. our next question is from francis r. will the gop-led congress do anything before the christmas recess? well, yeah. they're going to go shopping. they're going to take your tax dollars and go shopping. and now if you're asking me if they're going to make a deal, probably not.

it's the congress. stick around. rapid response panel coming up. i'm jane wells with your cnbc market wrap. the dow dropped 77. the s&p lost four. and the nasdaq down 14. this despite good news manufacturing activity topped expectations in november, growing at its fastest pace in more than two years. construction spending edged .8% in october. this is its fastest pace in more than four years, driven by a boost in government project. and today marks the biggest online shopping day of the year, cybermonday. analysts expect over 131 million people to jump on the web for the best holiday deals. excuse me while i get back to shopping. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide.

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welcome back to "the ed show." if you were busy spending time with family this weekend, you may have missed the brief end of racism. that's right. it's all over. that's right. the republican national committee experts on minority outreach practiematurely declar the struggle was over in a tweet sent out on saturday. the message was meant to commemorate the 58th anniversary of rosa parks' arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. the tweet read, "today we remember rosa parks' bold stand in her role in ending racism." ending racism? there's nothing controversial about paying tribute to rosa parks. and the role she played in the civil rights movement in this country. but as you can imagine, many americans were surprised to hear racism was all over. the tweet sent off a firestorm online. maybe the backlash has something

to do with the fact that this is still happening in america. >> set up near a mitt romney for president sign was a chair empty, except for two water melons, a rope tied into an apparent noose with a sign set up to look like a teleprompter that read, "go back to kenya." >> the sign in front of the georgia peach oyster bar says they don't support barack obama and the white house but uses the "n" word. >> the neighbor put a sign in his yard that uses the "n" word and claims it was directed at them. >> in an e-mail sent to an unknown number of officials, marlin davenport sent this photo, along with the phrase, now you know why no birth certificate. >> the rnc clarified its tweet saying previous tweet should have said today we remember rosa

parks' bold stand and her role in fighting to end racism. joining me now in our rapid response panel, political analyst dr. mike he eric dyson, the grio contributor, zerlina maxwell. great to have you with us tonight. dr. dyson, you first. you are a respected person in the black community all across this country, revered by many. and people look to you for leadership on a number of different issues. i would like to know, do you know what the republican minority outreach program is? >> brother ed, i can't fathom that. they gave themselves an autopsy to suggest they ought to have an outreach, and yet undercut themselves at every turn. and this kind of inadvertent mistake here only underscores their lack of awareness of and sensitivity toward african-american people and interests. and, by the way, racism is not merely expressed in these overt kinds of expressions. but in the very subtle ways in which the republican party has

refused to acknowledge the humanity, the far right wing, i should say -- the humanity of our president, and the ways in which policies that don't not only benefit african-american people, but actively resist their presence in the larger circle of american privilege. all of these things are quite problematic. and i don't think they're really sensitive to those kind of issues. >> dr. dyson, are you aware of the republicans and their minority outreach reaching out to any black leerds in america you're aware of? >> not that i'm aware of. i haven't heard a single one. >> zerlina, is this a case of not choosing words carefully or the republican national committee terribly naive about it all and not genuine about any of it? >> i want to give them the benefit of the doubt that this is probably a social media person who chose their words poorly. but it became a story, because of the larger narrative and the problem with race of the gop has had all throughout the obama presidency. i thought over the weekend about the march on washington. ingmar tin luther king would be

surprised to learn that racism ended in 1955, before the march on washington or congressman john lewis, beaten in 1961. he would be surprised to learn that racism ended before the freedom rides. i think that the republican party, the problem they have is not just like mike he mentioned, the overt forms of racism, but the larger narrative and that connection to policy initiative. so when you call the president the food stamp president. or you oppose affirmative action. these are all things that lead to the narrative that the republican party has a problem with race. that they really need to work on. >> i think it should be pointed out that not one republican spoke at the march on washington this summer. and they were invited. >> right. >> and they chose not to show up. and, you know, ever since president obama has been elected, republicans liked to, as you say, push this narrative that we live in some sort of post racial society. they use it to justify their attack on voting rights.

dr. dyson, anybody buying it? >> nobody is buying it, and the selling of it has been pretty poor. the reality is that the persistence of racial inequality suggests that the republicans would have to do a lot of soul searching. first of all, you can't, you know, present images of barack obama, president obama, as they have done, so viciously on the far right wing. and then the republicans have not been quick to repute pud ate that kind of thing and suggest in place of this vitriolic attention to racial matters they're willing to open up the doors, the flood gate of not only compassion, but as zerlina has indicated, of public policies that benefit and at least strengthen these african-american and latino communities. if you're not willing to deal with the issues of immigration, of affirmative action, of reform of our housing markets, then you're not really serious about the issues of race in america. >> well, what i find interesting politically about the republicans here is they don't have any point person that is going to get a lot of media

attention, and focus on minority outreach. and research and clarification. they don't have a go-to person on this, which tells me that certainly they're not genuine about it at all. now, in may 2013 survey done by the pew research center found that 88% of african-americans and 57% of whites felt that there is at least some discrimination towards african-americans. are things getting better, or are they getting worse, zerlina? >> i don't think they're getting better. i wouldn't say that we are where we were in 1955. of course that's not true. but i think there are a number of different things. as michael pointed out, there are pervasive problems that exist in our society. you know, outcomes are not equal for people of color. when you are born, the zip code in which you are born predetermines where you are -- what socioeconomic class you can end up in, and that is largely because of the structural inequality that impacts black and brown people.

and so i think that until the republican party wakes up and smells the coffee, they are going to have these problems persist, because they're not willing to acknowledge that racism exists, which is why this tweet was a problem for them. and so they're not going to put forth any policies that actually work to solve these problems. >> yeah, well, another issue, and, of course, we talk about it a lot on this program is obama care and health care, the affordable care act. a large number of minorities in this country are going to be helped by this law. and they have been so terribly opposed to it, dr. dyson. how can they run any kind of minority outreach if they are opposed and voted 40 some odd times in the house to take away health care from people who are going to get it who happen to be minorities, yet they've got this big outreach thing going on? >> you're so right in terms of pointing out the conflicts and the contradictions. and you have been valiant on this show in underscoring how fast are you contradictory they are. if you claim you want to have an outreach and against the

affordable health care act and opposed to the expansion of pell grants. and furthermore, you have dealt with financial instruments that have undermind african-american people's ability to engage in the procurement of adequate housing for themselves. and you've been against every measure of affirmative action and educational equity that might provide us equal footing. so in that case, it's much ado about nothing. it's a lot of talk. as james brown said, you're talking loud and saying nothing. >> zerlina, how aggressive should the white house be on the heels of this website, massingive provement meeting the date? >> very aggressive. as a person uninsured and has been on the new york exchange, i think that people that are uninsured have a great deal of patience. and the white house should exploit that patience. because people that are uninsured want health insurance. and that's why the traffic is so high. i think they need to be very aggressive here and say the website is getting better and better and people are going to fundamentally -- their lives are going to change. >> time for the offense. no doubt about it.

michael eric dyson, sgher lena maxwell, thanks for being on "the ed show." appreciate it. coming up, a north dakota local news station keeps it classy. how are things with the new guy? all we do is go out to dinner. that's it? i mean, he picks up the tab every time, which is great...what? he's using you. he probably has a citi thankyou card and gets 2x the points at restaurants. so he's just racking up points with me. some people... ugh! no, i've got it. the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn 2x the points on dining out and entertainment, with no annual fee.to apply, go to citi.com/thankyoucards yep. got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with new fedex one rate,

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welcome back to "the ed show." a morning train ride ended in tragedy yesterday morning. four people were killed and more than 60 others were injured when a metro north train went off the tracks sunday morning. national transportation safety board investigators now say the train was traveling 82 miles an hour approaching a 30 mile-per-hour speed restriction zone on the harlem river when it derailed. this is the third accident on the metro north tracks this year and the fifth involving an mta train. 83 million riders use metro north each year, and it covers 775 miles of track. whether the incident sunday was operator error or a mechanical issue, it's clear safety on public transportation needs to be addressed in this country. new york congressman gregory meeks joins us tonight from washington. congressman, great to have you with us. the information coming out today by the ntsb saying the train was

going 82 miles an hour. what was your reaction? >> well, ed, first of all my sympathies go to the families of those, the four that lost their lives. and of course my prayers are going out for the 60 that are injured and hope that they can be healed and back as soon as possible. and when i heard about the speed that the train was going and the fact that the conductor said he applied the brakes and they did not stop, of course, i'm concerned. and know that we've got to get to the bottom of it and investigate as to why this tragedy has taken place. clearly 82 miles per hour in a 30 mile-an-hour zone is problematic. i know the investigators will get to the bottom of it. we need to be as patient as we possibly can, i guess, to let the investigators get all of the facts that needs to be found. >> congressman, the ntsb is known for thorough investigations. we must point out they've been

urging railroads for decades to install technology that can stop wrecks caused by excessive speed or other problems. what's stopping them? what's the holdup here? >> i agree that we need to have the technology. we need to do a whole host of infrastructure upgrades with our rails. and a lot of it has to deal with cost. you know, if you look at the budgets that are being proposed, i know one budget that was proposed by congressman ryan, for example, for fiscal year 2014, he's looking at cutting these budgets that goes to states by $5 billion. that's all problematic. we've got to put safety first. we've got to look at doing our infrastructure over making sure that it is strong for both, you know, updated technologies and safety of the riders. it seems to me to just make good common sense as well as an investment for america. >> i think we know the attack on

workers in this country has been well documented. i want to point out that metro north alone has 121 stations in seven counties in new york state and two counties in connecticut. you know, as a private pilot, i would ask do we know who's doing the maintenance? i know this is going to come out in the investigation, the ntsb is going to review all of that. i'm not sure what kind of regulations as far as time on engine are put on the rails or anything like that. but do we know who's doing the maintenance and how do you view this as being a big part of the investigation? how does a train get to 82 miles an hour? >> i think we'll find that out. i don't think we know right now. we know it's not right. we know that something had to go wrong whether it was human error or mechanical error. we'll find that out. we need to do that. we also know we're an old train line. if you look at the infrastructure, all of it is very old. and so we need to utilize whatever new technologies are available to us so we can make

sure that all of the safety concerns are adhered to. you know, the american civil engineers have said that you look at what's taking place in the united states with regards to our public infrastructure, it gives us a grade of "d." that's not satisfactory. we've got to do something about that. >> congressman, and i don't know the answer to this, is it just one operator for a train that size? or is there any kind of backup? or do you know of any regulation that would be in place that would force a train of that size and speed and carrying that many people to have maybe two operators? >> well, i think we need to look into all of that clearly with the number of accidents we've had recently, we'll have to rest on the experts, i think to give us what that judgment is. on a train of that capacity we have one engineer and a conductor in the middle of the train. but one person that's driving the train. but i know that -- listen.

i just came back from europe and i had been into china. when i look at their technology, trains that travel way faster than the trains that we have, but yet they also have all of the safety mechanisms because it's all entirely new technology. and that's the direction i think that we need to go in. in the united states. >> if it is only one operator, it surprises people. it surprises me. people have strokes, they have heart attacks. that's putting a lot of responsibility on one person. and quickly, do you think it's time to overhaul the safety regulations for commuter rails? >> well, i think we have to look at everything. and that's why, ed, i say the nstb, they will do a thorough investigation and i believe that they will make some recommendations as to what should happen. then it will become incumbent upon congress to help the states to appropriate or get the money they need so we can do whatever upgrades we need to do because we need to save lives.

>> congressman gregory meeks of new york, good to have you on the show tonight. that's "the ed show." "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts now. good to see you tonight. >> good to see you, ed. and thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, it's starting to work. since the health care law went into effect two months ago, republicans have been on overdrive rooting for its failure. but after a rocky start, we're seeing huge improvements to the website and an end to the right wing's talking points. 100,000 americans chose insurance plans through the federal exchange in november. nearly four times as many people as signed up the month before. hundreds of thousands more getting coverage through the state-run programs. 91,000 people have signed up for insurance in new york. 98,000 enrollein